This Week in Startups E1042: Balaji Srinivasan (@balajis) shares insights on Recode incident, need for decentralized citizen journalism, techlash through the years, potential COVID-19 endgames: bull, bear & base case scenarios
Apr 3, 2020
Balaji Srinivasan, former CTO of Coinbase and an angel investor, shares his insights on corporate journalism and its failures during the COVID-19 pandemic. He discusses the rise of techlash, the need for decentralized citizen journalism, and critiques traditional media's bias. Balaji envisions a new era of journalism that embraces diverse voices, while examining the US's pandemic response and potential endgame scenarios. He poses crucial questions about accountability in reporting and the ethics of risk in managing public health.
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Recode Interview Request
- Balaji Srinivasan was contacted by a Recode reporter about concerns over coronavirus in Silicon Valley.
- He felt the reporter's focus was misplaced, neglecting crucial tech/science angles.
Befriend and Betray
- Corporate journalists employ "befriend and betray" tactics, feigning politeness while aiming to manipulate narratives.
- They often flatter subjects to gain trust, but then misrepresent their words to fit a pre-determined angle.
Techlash Timeline
- Tech journalism shifted from positive to negative after 2012, coinciding with tech's growing influence.
- This "techlash" reflects old media's resentment of tech's disruption of traditional industries and competition for ads.
